Grazza

Just one thing I wanted to say about this. Divorce is a huge legal and financial hassle, so I wouldn't be worried by that in itself. As long as she is genuinely Separated, I'd be fine with that. On the other hand, if you're with her one night and her husband comes in and says "What's this Love Machine doing in our bed?", you'd better run!

Michael Portillo does an awesome version of Straight Outta Compton:

OK, thanks. I always found that mini-game so difficult. Might have to save every time I successful clear a portion of it!

I want to play this, but could never get all the Chaos Emeralds. Could you let me know if it has a level select so I can gather them all before I start, please?

I'm surprised they even thought about Virtua Racing - jumping straight from 16-bit games to Model 1 (especially as they've mentioned that some of those were a challenge to emulate). Oi, Sega, please don't miss out System 32! Seriously, decent emulation (restoration?) of Sega's classics is something that should go on and on, 3D or not. I was bored last night so I completed Streets of Rage on "Hardest" (the most difficult setting in the original). Afterwards, I had a go of Streets of Rage 2 on "Mania", but that's crazy so I put it down to "Hardest"!

Just a quick update: I've completed Final Fight One on "Normal" (hooray!) I can 2-cred the game, but not 1-cred it. The beach level with Abigail always gets me! I'm so pleased I chose this version. Alpha Cody is awesome, and one of the reasons I now think the GBA port is one of the better ones. The more I play Final Fight, the more I like it.

Plus, it's not like they ever show us wireframe models or bare polygons. Whatever anyone says, Zelda Wii U has only ever been shown in a fairly polished state. It was an ambitious game, yes, but when you look at the lighting, shading and animation on the horses, it couldn't possibly be considered rough or primitive. Sigh. That's a great video, but it's sort of sad to be reminded of TP's development process. It's interesting to see that the development team were so pumped up by the positive reaction to the amazing 2004 trailer (food for thought, especially for those who think a live E3 show isn't important); but then you see how they thought up the wolf, then got keen on the idea of motion controls (supposedly inspired by PH's touch controls), all the way through to having Link's Crossbow Training instead of a Majora's Mask-type spin-off. The Wii era was such a deflating time for me. It was so wrong-headed.

Personally, I don't believe that video (Game Awards 2014) was dishonest. The reason for the delay given this year, however... that's a different matter. Even so, I would rather developers showed us what they were up to more often, even if it ends up delayed, because that video was one of the most interesting things I've seen from Nintendo.

After playing Final Fight 2, I fancied something a bit different. So... You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse

So, making a few leaps and assumptions here, but it's crazy to think of the implications. When we are finally able to send paleontologists there, they will very likely be able to find large animal fossils. Possibly even humanoids!

I was gonna say, I thought this was the big Q4 title!

I went through a phase of not being able to stop playing 3D Streets of Rage 2, but haven't turned on the machine for a while. More 3D Classics would keep me playing, especially Streets of Rage 3 (Bare Knuckle III), and I hope we do actually get Risky's Revenge: Director's Cut. Other than that, I can't see myself playing much more on the 3DS.

If I recall correctly, I don't think I ever expected to grow up. You take on responsibilities when you need to, but other than that I don't think there's much more to it. Even though my peer group and I are from the '70s, I still don't really see them as grown-ups. As much as I respect their achievements, I can't help but see them as youngsters, even though many of them are balding and their beards are turning white. Some of the men too. To put a slightly different slant on it, I feel society is different to how I expected. Even though I was never cripplingly shy as a teenager, I was still a shrinking violet when it came to new experiences. There were certain experiences that I was sure, such was my delusion, would be absolutely brilliant if I could ever pluck up the courage to do them. I romanticised certain things and places, if you like. When I did muster the courage to do them, I found most of them disappointing and much different to how I'd imagined them. I'm not saying people should never have new experiences, just that I have far less illusions than I used to. Wherever you go, you're still you and people are still people. That's not to say that I don't enjoy life, just that the only important things to me now are health, family and enough money for food on the table and a roof over my head. Even if you aim high, sometimes the little things are the best. In 1993, my greatest pleasures were weight training, playing Streets of Rage 2 and consuming chocolate and Coke. In 2015, my greatest pleasures are weight training, playing 3D Streets of Rage 2 and consuming chocolate and Coke...

The language in Etrian Odyssey games can be a bit fruity, but given what you've said I now suspect it's to do with the fact you can name your characters. Things like the town set-up and skill trees are straight out of Etrian Odyssey, whereas the dungeon gameplay seems more Mystery Dungeon.

This arrived today and it certainly went straight into my 3DS slot! Only done the tutorial but I really like it so far. Reminds me of the randomly-generated Grottoes from Dragon Quest IX. I've not played a Mystery Dungeon game before, but it seems very agreeable; plus it has a fair dose of Etrian Odyssey. My only gripe is that I went onto Miiverse and you can't post screenshots! I was looking forward to documenting the Sherwood guild's efforts throughout this.

Impatient for Etrian Mystery Dungeon to arrive, I really fancied playing a SNES game. Taking a leaf out of H-o-T's book, I downloaded something I'd always wanted to play - Final Fight 2. I've loved brawlers since I was about eight and never grew out of them. There's just something too primal about walking along fighting hordes of enemies. As much as I love Bare Knuckle II, there's something about the Capcom style that nobody quite ever matched. The sprites are incredibly chunky and the Final Fight games have that ever-fun "throw enemy into other enemies" mechanic. That said, in this game I actually find it's more useful to be swift and aggressive. Speaking of which, I played the game as Carlos, who is an excellent all-rounder. He is fast enough to stop even the bigger wrestlers in their tracks, so I'm curious as to what Maki's extra speed can bring to the table (assuming she's faster). You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse

I feel the 16-bit era in general had more understanding of this - ie. that one player is likely to be more dedicated than the other, yet it is still possible for others to tag along. As I understand it, in Secret of Mana, you could play 2- or 3-player, or just play by yourself and use the A.I. It's a great shame there aren't more RPGs you can go through together. Another genre that was great for this was the side-scrolling beat-'em-up - particularly thinking of the Golden Axe and Streets of Rage series. They were simultaneous 2-player, so you could explain to your girlfriend which characters were best, take on the tougher enemies yourself, and actually demonstrate in front of her how to do dash attack, rear attack etc.

She's right. Whereas, say, Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine were about learning the controls + camera and mastering the game, Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Mario 3D World lessened that aspect and instead increased the difficulty to a ridiculous level (in post-game). For your girlfriend, it sounds like the best thing to do would be to go back to 2D. Go through Super Mario World or New Super Mario Bros U together.

Lovely colours. I don't think they ever bettered that art style for the top-down Zeldas. Go back to pixel art, Nintendo!

No, I hadn't. Hmm, the graphical downgrade is regrettable, for sure. On the other hand, at least the pixels will perfectly match the screen. I no longer have an SDTV, and don't know if it's possible to play the PS2 game in HD, so I still think this would be my favoured version for now. This sounds brilliant. Do they have Metal Slime equipment (Rank A in Dragon Quest IX, if I recall correctly, rather than Rank S)? I never liked the other way of getting them in VIII.

Recipes aren't all that interesting - in Untold, they generally give you a temporary enhancement (eg. more EXP, more chance of drops). Not exactly sure what Potions are in this context, but they don't sound too essential. The one that bothers me is the Gold Guardian quest. The Nugget and Gold Fragment are sure to unlock new equipment/weapons, which might make the difference in a boss fight. I might have to shell out £1.19 .

I think this could actually lend weight to the idea that the NX will basically be a "Wii U Turbo", similar to the relationship between Wii and GameCube. Nintendo could take what they've done with Pikmin 3, build on it and have it ready for launch/near launch (I'm not sure they'd be so quick with Pikmin 4 otherwise, let alone announce it).

This needs to be true. If @Grazza sees there's a possibility of Landstalker and it doesn't happen... he might never recover. They must, must release these! Golden Axe should be the arcade version and Streets of Rage 3 should have the true Bare Knuckle III on it as well, but they've got to do it! I play Bare Knuckle II almost every night (no jokes please)!

If there's one thing I hope about this one, it's that you don't have to switch between "leaders". Although I quite like the series, dividing time between different leaders somewhat detracted from the 2nd and 3rd games for me.

It must be quite unusual having visible enemies (particularly Metal Slimes) in this game. I know they were visible in IX, but that was top-down (and there were some visible monsters in VIII, but only ones for the Monster Arena/Support Teams). I've gone from being indifferent, to really, really wanting this now.